Who do you have winning the NCAA Women's Division III national
tournament?

The safe bet is to tick off one of the usual suspects: Salisbury,
Franklin & Marshall, TCNJ or Hamilton. Maybe even Colby this
year.

All good teams to be sure, but the best team in the country right
now is Union.

The Dutchwomen have rattled off 11 consecutive wins - including a
most impressive weekend sweep of No. 6 Hamilton, 14-5, and No. 14
William Smith, 11-5 - and are a lock to earn a bid to the
tournament regardless if they win next weekend's Liberty League
tournament or not.

You should probably pencil them in to win it because Union is
operating on all cylinders right now. The team has used a rash of
midseason injuries - there were five starters in street clothes for
the Dutchwomen's win over Cortland - to increase its depth and
strengthen an on-field rapport that was lacking at the beginning of
the season.

"At this point, we've played so many different people," said head
coach Jessica Critchlow. "If you look at our stat sheet, we're
playing everyone on our roster. I think we took some hits with that
in some games, but at this point we have a whole unit that is
comfortable playing together. Everyone kind of has a job or role
and our on the field chemistry is very good. We have a good sense
of ourselves and this is the time you want it."

Despite their recent dominant play, which has also included a rout
of Nazareth and a comfortable win over Middlebury, Critchlow had
some trepidations heading into this past weekend when she had to
face two of the nation's elite teams in less than 24 hours.

"Looking at that at the beginning of the season, you say,
‘Geez, that's tough. Those are two of the biggest games of
the year and to play them back-to-back is a rough weekend,'" she
said. "Everyone gets a fair shake with the conference and each year
you have to deal with those set-ups, and this was our year to take
the bullet."

The Hamilton game was a microcosm of what is making the Dutchwomen
so successful this season.

The Continentals held Kristin Joyce, who leads Union with 53 goals,
to just one marker in the first 40 minutes of action, but other
players managed to fill the void. Chelsea Charette posted a natural
hat trick in the first half and even defensive midfielder Tory
Arnold, who hadn't scored a goal in the first 13 games of the year,
netted a pair.

"This is a total team offense and we really don't care who scores,"
said Critchlow. "The balance is huge because if one team wants to
take a player out of the game, you have to have three or four other
options."

Beating Hamilton also emphasized what Union has as its last line of
defense.

Last year, Cat Ruggiero played in just five games before being
sidelined by a severe concussion, but this year she is back at full
strength. She made 10 saves against the Continentals, allowing the
Dutchwomen to build a 13-1 lead before cruising to the 11-goal
win.

"There are three types of goalies out there," said Critchlow.
"There are goalies who are going to lose games for you, there are
goalies who are going to be neutral and play how your teams plays,
and there are goalies who are going to win games. I think Cat falls
into the latter category for us."

Union has been particularly strong at home - the losses to F&M
and Williams both came on the road by a total of three goals - and
should it navigate its way to the Liberty crown, it's a sure bet
they will host one of the four NCAA regionals.

If that happens, you better add the Dutchwomen to your short list
of title contenders.

Tickets PunchedAs this blog goes up, we have five teams who have punched
their ticket to the NCAA tournament. On the women's side, Salisbury
(CAC), Christopher Newport (USA South), Roanoke (ODAC) and Franklin
& Marshall (Centennial) have their orders in hand. On the men's
side, Salisbury is the lone team so far with an automatic bid.

Shout Outs- To Buffalo State for beating Cortland and locking up the
host seed for the SUNYAC tournament. The Bengals are now 14-1 and
the worst case scenario for them is finishing at 16-2 and being
thrown into the at-large pool. They'd be hard to keep out of the
NCAAs with that record. And in case you forgot, Buff State lost to
the aforementioned Union team by a goal on the road and defeated
Division I Niagara. The question will be how a relatively young
team can handle the bright lights of the postseason.

- To the McDaniel men. At first glance, the Centennial tourney race
appears to be a two-horse one (Gettysburg, Haverford), but don't
count out the Green Terror too quickly. Matt Hatton's troops lost
in overtime to Haverford, who they play in the first round, 13-12
and also took Washington College to extra time. While they haven't
won that one big game yet, they've been darn close on a couple of
occasions and could be a spoiler.

- To the Stevens women. With one game left in the regular season on
Tuesday, the Ducks are still perfect at 15-0 after dispatching RIT
and Alfred this weekend. The lone contest left? It's against
Stevens' only ranked opponent: No. 5 College of New Jersey. This
intrastate "friendly" will give us a good indicator of how the
Ducks might fare in the tournament, but the unblemished mark to
this point is worthy of praise.

- To the C.W. Post men. Despite getting over what must have been a
rather large mental hurdle by beating NYIT a couple of weeks ago,
the Pioneers have not let down. Last week, they posted a
workmanlike, 10-5 victory over Mercyhurst and followed that up on
Saturday with a 16-5 triumph over No. 7 Molloy. Only No. 9 Dowling
remains between Post and a sure-fire NCAA tournament berth.

- To the Drew women. One of the long-shot scenarios I wrote about
in my Decoding Pool
B blog on Friday was Drew earning one of the independent
berths. It involved beating No. 10 Catholic twice in the span of
one week. Well, the Rangers are off to a nice start. Drew snapped
the Cardinals' 12-game winning streak with an 11-8 win, likely
setting up a rematch with Catholic on Saturday. Regardless of the
Landmark title game's outcome, I've changed my mind about my
previous selections: I think Drew is in and Colorado College is out
in Pool B.

- To long-time Richard Stockton coach Dick Rizk. After 18 seasons
coaching the Ospreys and over 40 years of teaching lacrosse, Rizk
is stepping down at the end of the season. Posting a 137-114 (.546)
record at Stockton, Rizk made 11 ECAC tournament appearances in the
last 15 years, including a Metro title in 2002. The Ospreys could
send Rizk off with something he's never had - an NCAA tourney
berth. Stockton is the second seed in the Skyline Conference
tourney with a 5-1 record, and its only loss came by a goal to
top-seeded Montclair State. Regardless of the outcome, a hearty
thanks to Rizk for his contributions to the sport.

Slides & Rides- The Lock Haven women managed to navigate the PSAC
minefield to win the conference title on Saturday, downing
defending conference and national champion West Chester in the
finals, 13-10. The PSAC was the toughest conference in women's
Division II, boasting four ranked teams, which will undoubtedly
serve Haven well in the NCAA tournament.

- With the Conference Carolinas title in their pocket and a
head-to-head victory over St. Leo, the winner of the Deep South,
it's tough to think the Men's NCAA Division II South bid can go to
anyone but Limestone. This hasn't been the Saints most dominant
season - they have losses to Belmont Abbey and Wingate on their
record - but they won the games they needed to. And there will be
no surprises if/when Limestone is paired up with Le Moyne in the
first round: the Saints lost a neutral site game to the Dolphins,
8-4, on March 7.

- It's been a little while since I've caught up with the MCLA, but
it is starting more and more to look like last year: Michigan and
everyone else. BYU stunned Chapman two weeks ago and Simon Fraser,
currently ranked No. 2, wasn't overly impressive in its win against
league rival Oregon. This is going to be a very difficult first go
around for the MCLA selection committee as there are some very odd
scores (especially in the SELC) and some traditionally strong teams
with an unusually high number of losses (UCSB, Colorado State).

- Keep an eye out on Wednesday or Thursday for my first mock
bracket for men's and women's Division II and Division III...the
Dickinson women gave F&M a good run in the Centennial
semifinals, but they peaked at the wrong time. Switch around a
couple of early season losses and they'd be contenders for a
bid...even with a bunch of quality contenders from numerous
conferences, don't be surprised if the NESCAC gets two at-large
bids again. The numbers are stacking up very well for them so
far...some team other than Ithaca will have to win the Empire 8 for
that league to get two bids. I don't think Stevens has
enough...Greensboro's loss to Wesley on Saturday may be all she
wrote for the Pride in terms of a Pool B bid...What happened to the
Messiah men? There was a stretch there when they were always at the
top of the MAC and giving strong non-conference teams a run. This
year, the Falcons didn't even make the MAC conference
tourney...congrats to Castleton for winning in the inaugural NAC
women's championship.